Mon, 21 Feb 2011

12:46 PM - My review of "History of the Berkeley Software Distributions"

I purchased a copy of History of the Berkeley Software Distributions by Marshall Kirk McKusick last month. It's a two part series exploring the history of BSD and the structure of the FreeBSD project.  It includes 218 minutes of video taped at public speaking events.

Part I includes a detailed account of BSD at UCB including information predating McKusick's involvement.  There are several anecdotes about Bill Joy and events during the famous lawsuit with AT&T/UCL.  It concludes with the forming of FreeBSD and NetBSD from 386BSD.

Part II focused exclusively on the FreeBSD project organizational structure.  Discussion of the core team, gaining commit bits, and the need for the FreeBSD foundation.  I found this piece less interesting as I knew most of it anyway.  

The video is worth the price for Part I.  It's a well put together video with useful information for those interested.  

tags: bsd att mckusick ucb

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